I am a survivor. Thats what those of us with Traumatic Brain Injuries call ourselves. Because I often can't remember yesterday this journal serves as my memory. I have decided to share my life to help others understand this disability. You can E mail me at bobcarver2@yahoo.com. Your comments are always welcome. Tell your friends about my blog if you find it interesting

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Hit the bees hard, I think

8/23/07 Thursday This is the first time I’ve had to take a pain pill in two days. In a way that’s good though there is nothing good about the pain. I just like not taking them too much. I hit the bees pretty hard yesterday. As it began to get dark they were congregating together in several spots, getting ready for the night I suppose. That made it easier to kill larger numbers of them. We ran out of the hornet spray I bought two days ago so I didn’t really have anything to spray them with. I looked through everything I have and even tried some of Cherie’s hair spray, which she uses effectively against spiders in the house, but the wind was too strong and I had to get right up next to them. Not the best place to be when you stir them up. Finally I found a can of brake clean that had a little left in it. It shoots a stream and would drop the bee’s on contact. They would often get back up after a few seconds but a third of them would die. Emptied the can in short order, spraying and running around the corner when they figured out where it came from. So I let them settle and congregate again, then would take the broom that had a broken handle about a foot and a half long and swat a group of them. This would take out a bunch and as they flew angrily around I kept on swatting them, killing a bunch more. This would disturb the other groups so I would have to retreat. Only got a few stings but that’s no big deal. I’m not allergic and it really doesn’t hurt much, at least not to me.

There were only a few there this morning so I killed as many as I could with the broom. As it warms up more start to show up. I suspect there is a hive they started under the house. Will have to crawl under there and see at some point. Right now things seem to be sealed up so they are trapped but eventually I am sure they will find a hole in this old house to escape from. If they are under the house I have one bug fogger left so will throw that down there to hopefully kill them off. It’s all part of the continuing fight. The spray foam deteriorates in just a few months so holes once sealed open up again.

Will go to the landfill this morning. Already started to finish up pulling the staples out of the fencing so should get that done. Watered the apple trees yesterday. I have forgotten to water pretty much everything so got the pumpkins and some of the squash this morning. Watered the tomatoes last night. The Amaranth is doing well but is being eaten up pretty badly by caterpillars. I’m out of the Dipple dust I guess. Looked all over and can’t find it. Just don’t remember using it up but that is normal for me. I’ll try some of the hot pepper oil on them, other than that there isn’t much I can do. No money for any of that stuff now. Down to the wire again. Ten bucks to last eight days.

Next month will be rough for we have to go to Albuquerque for my neurologist appointment. Eighteen hours worth of driving there and back again, that’s a lot of gas plus we have to eat. Fortunately the VA pays for a hotel room. In order to make the appointment we will have to leave at four in the morning. Been trying to call the lady in charge of that to see if they will get us a room the night before but can’t seem to get through, never an answer, just busy or rings without getting picked up. Cherie is trying once again with no luck.

So that’s our start. The puppies are out and running as always. One of the benefits of getting the weeds cut is they seem to be not venturing out on the highway. Hopefully we’ll get the land tilled and plant the buffalo grass or something to establish a good ground cover that will keep the weeds down. Besides it will look better. ----------------------------So I think I hit the bees hard do I? Spoke to soon. There weren’t many at all out there this morning but that sure changed. I went to the landfill, dropped off the garbage, found some barbed wire, garden hose, and a piece of steel roofing, and then picked up the mail. I harvested some more of the spaghetti squash to drop off at first church of Stanton. The youth pastor, Rick, was the only one there. We talked for quite a while about brain injury and God. I always run my head and worry about what I said later. Worrying about what I said is hard when I’m not real clear what I said. I know lots of it roughly.

So when I got back I checked on the bees. There were a bunch more now. They were buzzing around so much I couldn’t work on pulling the staples out of the wood as that was just twenty feet away. Instead I put ends on the garden hoses and began hooking them up for the drip feed irrigation. I watered the apple trees again and ate the peanut butter and honey on toast Cherie fixed for lunch. Going out I was shocked to see that the numbers of bees had quadrupled at least. They were even at the office door trying to find a way in. Damn. Now there are so many and they are so aggressive that the puppies don’t like being outside. As tight as our money is I have to get some spray to do something. Looking in my wallet I see I’ve got fifteen bucks, more than is in the bank. Cool. I’m off to Walfart as soon as dinner is done. Got a can of wasp and hornet spray for about $2.50. That took out a couple hundred bees as they were all close together. At least for a few seconds. Hit em a few times more and by nightfall there were again only a few visible. Who knows what tomorrow brings.

So I didn’t get much else done. Had a slowdown at around three. It only lasted about three or four hours. I think I went a couple of days without one but I have to go back and read this journal to see. I do remember there was a bad spell of them though I don’t remember how many days or anything, just that it was pretty rough.

I can’t remember if I turned off the hose I had soaking the squash so will have to put some clothes on, grab a flashlight and go check. Be back in a sec.

Didn’t go back in the squash patch to check cause it’s so dark and that’s when I understand the snakes come out. So I turned off the main faucet that feeds that whole section. I’m tired and there’s nothing on but football. I don’t follow football and it doesn’t really interest me that much. Will catch the ten o’clock news and call it a night.